Cleaning Your Cars
The cars arrive from the Japanese car auctions in various states of cleanliness. Sometimes, the auction sheet will state that the car has been cleaned on the inside and outside prior to being put up for sale, but we never translate this for one simple reason: By the time it's been at the auction and then transported to the yard it’s all dirty again. Some sellers also seem to think that a car going to auction is a great place to get rid of a bunch of junk that they have lying around.
So when a car arrives at the port, it can be quite dirty and have stuff inside that needs to be disposed of. There is not much point taking pictures of a car in that state, so the first thing we do is get rid of the junk, tidy up the interior, and wash the exterior, engine bay, and underside.
Now the car is ready for photography.
Photographing Your Cars
How many photos we take of the vehicle will depend on what there is of interest on the car. A humble Toyota Prius is not going to have so many things to take pictures of when compared with something like a Nissan GT-R that has all kinds of aftermarket parts all over the place.
However, our standard photo set would include eight photos of the exterior, several photos of the underside, photos of the wheels, photos of the interior, and a photo showing the dashboard including the odometer reading.
While you are eagerly waiting for photos of your car, please remember that we take photos in the order that the vehicles are leaving -- not the order in which they are bought. The reason for this is simple: If we took photos in the order cars were bought, we could sometimes end up running out of time to clean and photograph cars which were leaving right away.
What this means for you is that sometimes you may get photographs back very shortly after the car has been bought, whereas other times it could be a couple of weeks before you see them.
There is no additional charge for cleaning and photography. It's all part of the service!
(But since these are free service, we cannot guarantee that we can always provide the car wash and pictures for all vehicles)
Show Me Some Examples of Photo Sets
So, you probably want to see some examples of the photo sets we create for customers, right?
Well, while we would love to show you what a great spread of photos you get, photos of cars already bought by our customers are all private, so we can’t share.
It’s frustrating, but our customers’ privacy comes first.
Videos Of Your Cars
We can also accommodate the occasional request for video. These will not be high-quality professional videos like you might see on Vimeo -- no fancy GoPro action or drones are used.
A typical video which show the engine being started and then the engine running (which would give you a good idea about how the engine sounds) or show the car being driven past (again, to give an idea of how the car is running).
These can be useful to reassure your customers if you are buying to order, or to pre-sell the car if you are not. It shows them the car really exists and works.
